President Trump's campaign is gearing up for a cutthroat race to 2020, and his backers are prepared to wield Attorney General William Barr's memo as their most effective weapon.
Barr wrote that Special Counsel Robert Mueller didn't establish any collusion with Russia, and The Atlantic reports that the Republican National Committee and America First, a pro-Trump super PAC, are prepared to attack anyone who says otherwise.
Reporters who suggest there's more to learn about Mueller's report — which hasn't been released publicly, aside from a few words quoted by Barr — or attack Trump more generally, will feel the wrath of a very-prepared defense team. "Any reporter who tries that will be hit with 30-second spots of all their ridiculous claims about collusion," a source told The Atlantic. "Their tweets have all been screencapped. It's all ready to go."
Trump reportedly plans to continue speaking publicly about his self-described exoneration and doesn't want to move on since Democrats and some members of the media won't accept his assertion that Mueller cleared him of any wrongdoing. His first big shot at a "victory lap" will come on Thursday night at his campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he's expected to skewer critics who inaccurately predicted Mueller's report would be more immediately damaging. The message will be that Democrats are willing to make up lies "to stop us from making America great again," said a campaign source, and that Trump's allies are ready to go on the offense.
Trump-friendly groups, a source warned, are "geared up for any nonsense to come." Read more at The Atlantic.